now former florida governor jeb bush argues the nation's immigration policy should be overhauled to reflect our current economic needs but also should be clear enough to enforce it properly. this is a little under an hour. [applause] >> our beloved president ronald reagan passed away almost 10 years ago. but as many in this audience know, it seems nearly impossible

to follow political news without hearing some reference to our 40th president. his memory, his name and fortunately his legacy seemed to be ubiquitous as her country grapples with the challenges of our times. for many years, probably starting with the day after president reagan left office in 1989, there is been a famous question often asked when there is a particularly vexing problem facing our country. things like we have heard before. we the questioners often ask, well what would reagan do? it's a good question to ask because while times and technology and many things have changed since president reagan was in office, some important fundamentals, those who speak to who we are as americans, have not. i believe that our guest today governor jeb bush understands this.

and it's one of the reasons that after having left office just about six years ago he remained an extremely important national voice in the republican party. as we prepare to welcome the governor to the stage, let's first take stock and a handful of issues that we know where of vital importance to ronald reagan and square them up against the words and deeds of jeb bush on the same critical topics today. what are the fundamental issues? we know ronald reagan spent much of his life trying to cut taxes for the average american. he was convinced that it was the man or woman on the street who knew how to spend their dollar more wisely than the federal government and he did all in his power to prove it by cutting taxes. governor jeb bush was in office he cut taxes on floridians by $20 billion.

let's talk abut the size of government. ronald reagan was in the white house he dramatically reduce the rate of growth in federal spending and strove to reduce the size of the federal government. when governor bush was in office, he vetoed more than $2.3 billion in earmarks for higher state spending and reduce the size of the state government payroll a 13,000. when ronald reagan cut taxes and reduce the side of the government on the national level he did it with a purpose in mind. it was to spur the free market, create opportunity and provide incentives for businesses to grow. in his years in office over 20 million new jobs were created governor bush's state of florida is similar philosophy and economic or grams created a thriving state economy for 1.4 million new net jobs were added during his time in office. there are other fundamental report issues where the two men match.

suspending the rising cost of health care improving education through accountability and school choice and as i'm sure we'll hear some more this morning addressing the vital issues involving immigration that affect all of us. these are all issues addressed by ronald reagan years ago that continue to resonate on these important topics in our lives. ones in which governor bush has demonstrated much-needed leadership today. it is for these and many other reasons that jeb bush stands as the only republican governor in the history of the state of florida to be reelected to office. he hails from a family that has gone out of their way to extend more support to all of us at the reagan library over the years. let us extend that warmth and ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming governor jeb bush. a pause cut. >> i am truly honored to be here. [applause]

d. thank you. thank you all so much. it's great seeing you and thank you so much. it's an incredible honor to be in this beautiful place. i am just in awe of what you all have done here and surely privileged and honored to be here. i thought i would start my remarks by giving you a quick bush family updates. first i want to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers for my dad. as he said put the harps back in the closet. it wasn't time to go. [laughter] he has always had a pretty good sense of humor and thank goodness he was right about that and the harps are back in the closet. that is the good news. he is out of the hospital and regaining his strength little by little. lester day -- yesterday he was at his library with texas a&m twice in the last two weeks which is a good sign that he is

regaining his strength. that is the good news. the bad news -- [applause] the bad news is not going to be pampered anymore like he was in the hospital. he has a new caregiver. her name is barbara bush and she is pretty tough. [laughter] i might just about my brother. you haven't seen much about him in the last several months. he has been kind of out of the limelight for while so since you asked, marvin is doing really well. [laughter] thanks for asking. seriously, my brother george and laura have laid low over the last four years and maintained a tradition that is something pretty noble in our country which is when you leave the stage you leave the stage. he stopped chirping about what's going on even if the guy that precede you and i can say this as a son -- a brother, excuse me. even if he uses you as a prop to

lower expectations to make you look better during time of brother is maintain this tradition like reagan did certainly in my dad did after him and that is to leave the stage. they had a chance to server and it was the greatest joy in my brother's life and i'm proud of him for showing self-restraint that i never could have. [applause] two other quick family updates. might son george is proving that is either genetics or social upbringing but something compels a bush to run for office generation after generation. he is running for state-wide office in texas and i'm really proud of him. now i know what it's like just thinking about it i get emotional, when my dad was asked about what it was like for his sons to run for office and how he could barely complete a sentence. i'm in that same stage of life now. i am proud of him for doing it and he is a great guy.

the last thing i have got to tell you about in the bush family is something that you know i wasn't a grandfather for way too long and all the grandfathers and grandmothers of the world would share their pictures and you've had that experience. now i'm the worst culprit. i was thinking about it pulling out my phone to show you georgia elena walker bush. if you think about her name. [applause] this could be a place that will get there right away. i speak in some places and i mention her name and initiatives in nobody gets it but here of course you would. she is the love of our life and a couple things about georgia. if there are any grandparents in the room i find it amazingly brought up their children, it was through trial and error and it wasn't perfect. we brought children, it's a little bit of a training program to take care of grandchildren you would think that want to get grandchildren your children make you go through another training

process to be able to babysit. [laughter] so we have got to do it twice now. she is 18 months old and my hope is we can do this on a regular basis. when i'm alone with her her nickname is 41. [laughter] so one final thing about georgia that relates to some of the subject matter and going to talk about today, she would be what you you would call ike's in the politically correct world of american politics, she would be a quadra hyphenated american. so she is an iraqi, canadian, texas mexican-american. so she has got a lot of diversity which is really kind of a forward-leaning nature of our country and 20 years now when she pulls up a form that she will have to fill out like all of us on the census form she will say not applicable. that is the way it should you

think in our country where we take away identity politics and focus on the shared values that we have irrespective of where we come from. my little precious georgia may be a leading indicator of things to come in our country and i hope that's right. [applause] as i said it is an incredible honor to be with you all today. my first experience with ronald reagan was in bismarck north dakota believe it or not. it was at the state party convention in 1980. it was in the late spring and you may have been there doing advance work. i was a surrogate for the guy who was kind of in second place in that process, and i walk into this place. there are 4000 people in bismarck north dakota in 1980. i'm telling you this was like half the town. half of north dakota i think at that time was there and for the first time i heard then governor reagan speak and he spoke in such inspirational and

aspirational terms that i first was like totally you know, i am all in. this was like exactly the kind of message that got us 27-year-old guys really excited. then i realized i'm speaking next. that was a little nerve-racking to tell you the truth because there was no way that i could compare to the awesome speech that governor reagan gave. right before and getting on the stage ,-com,-com ma he completed his speech and he asked for me. i went back and said hello. he said this is a fairly heated primary, not like we have now where there bloodbaths and babies are dying in the streets in campaigns. but by its definition it was a pretty heated primary and governor reagan said that just i just wanted to meet you and if you could -- i just want to tell you how much i respect your dad. wow. so i was hooked for life after that.

i am totally on the reagan team from that moment on. what an incredibly generous man. then i go out to speak in the business news is i was still nervous but he lessened my nervousness quite a bit. the good thing was that of the 4000 people that came to hear the next president of the united states speak, only 400 of them stuck around to hear me speak. [laughter] so i got back down to its proper level and all was well. you know the election is over and the president has been reelected and the new congress has been sworn in. and we have basically what we had before, the fact that we spend $4 billion to have a president be elected and the senate and the house remain in republican hands. we have effectively gridlocked. we have variations on these new terms like sequester and last week in washington they called the snow that that never came the snow quester and we have things like the fiscal cliff

that used to be something you jump off of and die now it's an inability to find common ground on the budget. nothing in the election really change that. because our beloved nation is divided in the direction we should take an undecided as well and meanwhile the power of compounding is not our friend. our recovery is the weakest it has been in modern times. our entitlement programs everybody recognizes are unsustainable. they grow in magnitude without change and our regulations are outdated. they are complex, they are costly and they are certainly creating way too much uncertainty. our education system does not help enough young people gain the power of knowledge to pursue their dreams as they see fit. our debt levels are way too high and their rising rather than dig running. our tax policy has gotten way too complicated and it punishes savings and success.

our social and economic mobilito define america as something that we have been proud of for legitimate reasons irrespective of where you start, if you work hard and play by the rules he can achieve great things. that has diminished. we in fact amongst the developing countries of the world, we are the least economically mobile now. our country has changed in our political system which is so important for us to begin to break through is not capable yet at least of being able to solve these problems. so what should we do? first we need to create a bipartisan path to high sustained economic growth and desperately as americans irrespective of whether we have had in auer or a t layer name we should demand respect land with civility, we should demand leadership. we should demand public leadership. [applause] high economic growth creates more revenue for more people and

for government then any creative idea. high growth exponentially increases revenue. we saw that in the 80s and early 2000 it is absolutely true. low growth or no growth which is what we have had now for four years after the so-called great recession shrinks revenue collection and increases demands on government. think of the growth of medicaid or food stamps which is gone from 32 million to 47 million in four years or unemployment compensation that has gone through the ceiling and many other elements where the demands on government grow. not only are we not getting the revenue we need for government but also dramatically expanding because of government. the power of compounding can be your friend or it can be your enemy. right now it is our enemy. die in action we put ourselves in peril of really making it harder for the next generation

to be successful. the debt load and our inability to structurally change is now at a point where we have to change it. on the other hand if we decide as a nation high economic growth is something we should aspire to again just depends perspective a 2% increase in real economic growth compounded over 10 years. do the math on that. you would think that's not that big of a deal but in the tenth year it incrementally creates a germany. it creates $4 trillion of additional economic activity. it creates billions of jobs. trust me it creates enough revenue to be of the fund the things we need government to do. under the effective current tax rates it would create a trillion dollars of additional recurring revenue for state local and federal government. it seems to me we can put aside our partisan differences and try to find common ground to be able to go back to the days were 3.5% or 4% growth was what we aspire to and what we tried to direct

policies to a cabin. that $4 trillion of economic activity would lift our spirits as well. our country has been a positive place in present reagan exemplified this more than any other elected official. he always believed the next generation would have more opportunities. believed in the american spirit, people interacting among themselves that we could create a better day. by having that kind of growth our spirits as a country collectively would be uplifted again. the best deficit reduction program is a growing economy and strangely if you see the debate washington day very little of it is about economic growth and a lot of it is about what my dad would say it your broccoli, it's about the austerity and the toughness that has to get done. don't get me wrong but it's much easier to get done in the context of high sustained growth where jobs are being created and jobs are of value for people to

be able to further their dreams. i have three suggestions that i don't think that partisan. they are not necessarily ideological but if we pause on all the other stuff and there are good things to fight about trust me, that we can get to the point where we have higher sustained growth. one would be to create a patriotic energy prop -- based on innovation and north american resources. second, to reform our immigration system and move it towards something that would be part of the high-growth economic strategy true to our heritage respecting the rule of law, but moving it to the 21st century where our brand which is not around the world would allow high high achieving people with great aspirations to come and create opportunities for all of us and then third transformation and not reform anymore but real transformation of our education system so more and more children can gain the power of knowledge

and be successful in life. [applause] we are the most energy abundant country in the world. 10 years ago or 12 years ago we were about ready to no longer have natural gas. it was an amazing thing people were building billion-dollar plans to import liquefied natural gas into our country and today we have so much gas we don't know what to do with it. that is because of american ingenuity and technology. a greek immigrant combining two existing technologies hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling created the greatest explosion of innovation in the last decade at times certainly competing with the commercialization of the internet. there should be bans and parade celebrating this incredible thing we are now on the precipice of being energy secure and all the benefits that has but unfortunately because much of this is taking place in west texas and north dakota it's not cool.

there is a secret committee that decides what is cool and what isn't. this is not cool so there isn't the celebration but there should be. there should be because this is something that opens up the door for tremendous benefits for our country. last year $300 billion -- [applause] last year $300 billion went out of the coffers of the united states without any economic benefits. much of this goes to countries that hate us today or are unstable and can quickly learn to hate us immediately after there might be regime change. this is not an effective national security policy where we take the patrimony of our own country to support regimes that don't have the institution of democratic institutions in place that bring stability for its people. the great news is that we can become the largest producer of oil and gas in the world within a short period of time.

it's something we should put aside their differences and applied with enthusiasm to create a strategy that would make that happen and if it did imagine the benefits. we would have the lowest cost energy source in the world to re-industrialized our country. it would lessen greenhouse gas emissions as more powers generated with natural gas and less from coal. it is saving consumers billions of dollars on their utility bills. it would create hundreds of thousands of highways -- high-wage jobs and hundreds of billion dollars of investment and infrastructure firm country and rather than to transfer payment out like we did last year of $300 billion. what should we do? first i would think it's a no-brainer trying improve the keystone pipeline for starters. [applause] the simple fact is that oil is either heading west to our ports

to go to asia or coming south to bring the infrastructure that allows us to create jobs and opportunities in our country into an answer on national security. we should have rational regulations for fracking to make sure it's done responsibly but it should not be paralyzed. for some odd reason today we have a hard time applying 21st century rules and regulations on top of economic activity. we apply 1975 rules make them more complex and think that's the best path. might -- to make this industry of permanent part of our hydra strategy do we can use 21st century solutions to make this viable and have proper rules around it. we should open up federal lands and waters for drilling and allow the drilling to take place. i don't know if you saw the news today there has been a serious decline in the last three years of oil and gas produced on federal lands. if we want to become energy security then we should use those resources for proven

reserves that exist. we should create incentives for using natural gas for transportation. it just cries out for logically the price of natural gas per unit of energy as 1/2 or even less than it is for diesel and that knowledge exist to be able to expand natural gas. you could save 1.5 billion barrels per day of imported oil and expand our own energy to be able to create a more competitive tracking situation. we ought to have incentives for conservation in our homes and cars and businesses we should continue to consume less. the simple fact is that conversation -- conservation is the cheapest energy savings we can use and the best means by which we can create a conference of strategy. we should let market forces decide and not resort to government venture capital. it's an oxymoron. it does not work. [applause]

it has been tried and it has failed. let's move on and let's trust the interaction of people in their garages and in their labs in pursuit of their own dreams creating disrupted technology to lower the cost of energy for renewables rather than having people in the of the department of energy thinking that they know best. that is the path to a brighter future and that is the path of getting at least 1% growth per year over the next 10 years. if we embrace this energy policy which is there for the government to embrace, they don't have to create the policies. it is happening but we just have to eliminate the barriers to accelerate the use of natural gas in our economy. i have a question for you all. 10 years from now you were going to be 10 years older and everybody wants to be here i hope. the simple fact is that we are

all getting older together and we are not the same -- are fertility rates have dropped dramatically and we are beginning to have an inverted pyramid that makes our challenges it relates to entitlements and social security even greater. slow growing developing countries have had for decades lower fertility rates. japan and europe particularly and russia and now china starting to feel the impact of its one one-child policy. we are better off than the rest of the developed world but are fertility rate has dropped to below breakeven at 1.8 the lowest drop in the last three years in recorded history. unlike most of the world we have a tried and true way to deal with this demographic timebomb. demography does not have to be deafening if you change course and the path that we could take is to allow for a strategic reform of our immigration laws so that we can bring young aspirational people that will rebuild the dub demographic

pearman to make her entitlement system secure and jumpstart our economy in a way that will create an uplifting of our hopes and dreams but also direct the impact, immediately impact economic growth. no country can do it like america. our national identity is based on a set of shared values and i'm so pleased that the reagan library and its effort here is focused on education to remind us of what those shared volumes are whether we are native or not they are essential for success as a nation. in america race is not an identifier of national identity nor is some excuse and a policy. it's focused on a set of values. it's what sets us apart from the rest of the world. it's our heritage that has created more dynamism and innovation than any other country in the face of the earth at a time and we desperately need to reengage and to grow and be optimistic and prosperous it seems to me we cannot put aside

this huge powerful catalytic converter for continued progress as we have done over the last decade of time. i believe the people that want to come to this country may energize native-born and met floridians like myself and if they embrace the values of learning our history and learning english they will be a major contributor to our economic vitality. the number of businesses started by native warned americans has declined from 1996 to 2011. the number of business startups among immigrants in that same period have grown by 50%. in 1999 american born scientist for granted 90,000 grants compared to 70,000 in the united states for scientist born in other countries. by 2910 years later more patents were granted to more scientists in the united states and native warren scientists. those parties i think are to blame on this. on the one hand i think

democrats have seen this as a wedge political issue hoping it doesn't get sold because they think they wind general elections and my party and many of your republicans view this as a primary election where we have fights about this in the primary to show who is the strongest in terms of order control and the net effect is politics is driving the immigration and conversation. i'm so happy today to tell you that is changing in washington d.c. because we desperately need reform. we need to continue to improve border security and in tracking down 40% of the country that come in illegally come by illegal visa and just overstay their time. we need to be able to have new technology to track those folks when they're illegal visa expires. we should do what they we can to make it easier for people to come legally been to, illegally. the great majority of people that come here come for good reasons. they come to provide for their families.

they come because their children are hungry. they come because they want a better life for their families that they can't come legally because our system has been overwhelmed and it is not working. a system going forward must say that it is harder to calm it legally and there is a price hired to, illegally then to actually have a chance to come legally. [applause] we need to move to an economic growth driven system. that means family-based immigration should be narrow back to where it was 40 or 50 years ago to reuniting spouses and their minor children. the change has allowed for adults to claim their brothers and sisters and their elder parents and they get to make the same claims once they get a green card and we create what is called a chain migration that is flogged or immigration system and made it harder for economic immigrants to come to our country.

more visas should be increased based on needs and graduates of stem field should stay if they start a business. we only need to look north to find a better way. better way. at the same time united states shares economic immigrants has dropped from 18% to 13% between 1991 and 2011 its sword and canada from 18% to 67%. indeed even though canada has one tenth of our population they have more economic immigrants because they developed a strategy to make this part of our economic growth. the united states could do the exact same thing. h-1b visa should be expanded and a path of residency should be made easier. in 2007 there was a million h-1b visa holders that were trying to get 140,000 i believe green cards that are given annually. there is a term to the so what we what we are doing is training people with high skills that could be the next generation of

innovators that allow us to be competitive and successful and we are training them. where did they go? they go to the countries that are competing for high wage jobs this is madness. we need to change the system so as part of our economic interest to allow the streamers and people of great talent to stay in our country and make a difference here. we need a guestworker program based on economic need to help sustain industries like tourism and agriculture. with better technology and more sophisticated enforcement i think we need to expand dramatically tourist season because of its huge impact. that may be because i'm from florida and i guess i'm biased in that regard but why would you want to have visitors, and spend all the money they want to at disneyland or disney world or some other places to be able to create immediate economic activity for our country? for the millions who are here illegally -- [applause]

there needs to be a path to legal status achieved by paying a fine and learning english and not violating the laws of an extended period of time. it's not the american way to keep people and pushing in the shadows. what would reagan do? he would work for comprehensive immigration reform and give people a chance of living a life of dignity outside the shadows where they can make a full contribution to the success of our nation. finally if we are to get this right we need to have civics education elevated not just for immigrants although certainly that is important. [applause] but for all of us. all of us. we cannot have an immigration policy where multiculturalism is the core foundation of our nation. we have to have shared values and the only way to have shared values is for people to embrace and understand them and to

appreciate them and that should not just be for immigrants but for all of us. it is maddening to see that people don't know their free branches of government are the competition, they confuse the competition with the declaration of independence. our schools have not had a focus on restoring civic education to education and that should be part of any immigration strategy. [applause] we need to do these two things. an economically driven education strategy and a patriotic energy strategy and my guess is we are getting close to the 2% incremental growth that creates a rebirth of our country. the way to sustain it is to ensure that every child gets the kind of education that allows them to be successful in pursuit of their own dreams. sadly the greatest country on the face of this earth has more or less the following after

spending more per student than any country in the world the third of our kids are college and/or career ready by the time they complete their journey through 12th grade. and third get a piece of paper that says you are a high school graduate that if they go to community college or a four year university they will have to take remedial courses. they will have to did free doing wishon math. in effect they had to redo what they didn't quite learn the first time. and a third more or less depending on the state of dropouts. that is not acceptable for a country that wants to aspire to economic opportunity for everybody. it is why we have less social mobility and economic mobility and why we are creating a permanent group of people who are stuck in poverty. they don't want to be there. they don't want their children to be there. we have to figure out a way to transform our education system so it irrespective of where you

are from or wherever you live and your children and family comes from blowing, doesn't matter. you will get the same quality expectation we will have the same expectations for every person in the system and every child to assure we get the kind of learning gains that drake's the cycle of despair and poverty that exist today. this perhaps is the highest national priority to our country. [applause] i am tired. i have fought this fight as governor for 10 years and i continued to fight this game but i'm tired of hearing people say it's not fair to have robust accountability. it's not fair because of broken homes and children come from policy -- poverty. it's not fair, it's not fair when in fact what is not fair is to have two thirds of those

children after spending more per student than any country in the world not to be able to be college or career ready when they get to 12th grade if they make it at all. that is what is not fair. [applause] in florida be graded schools abcd and f. the transparency was incredible. people knew what and f was somewhat in a was. they wanted a zen the system began to move. we ended social promotion in third grade for functionally illiterate readers which california to consider doing to deal with this achievement gap that exists. so you intervene early to make sure the gaps don't grow so big that the kids lose hope. we focused on early literacy and put reading coaches in every school to teach teachers how to teach reading because their schools of education don't do a great job on that. we embark on the biggest school choice programs public and private in the country now being

emulated by other states and put her from the system and empowered particular the lamp -- low income parents and the results were that florida which is at the bottom of the pack in 1997 based on the nation's report card has moved up dramatic way above the national average to the extent by the way that low income hispanic kids on the fourth-grade reading test it better than the california average. i am proud of the gains that florida is made but there's a lot of work that needs to get done. it is shameful that we allow system to cast away an entire generation. it can change and in florida's case we moved the needle to put us in place for continued improvement. my hope is that people realize while this is not necessarily a federal issue this is something that should be a national purpose. a little bit of our time and time and energy ought to be to challenge the system that has

created these abysmal results before it's too late. if we do those three things we will still have the fights on the size and scope of government the level of taxation and whether there is equity in the tax policy and all that. that is fair game but those three things would create a greater chance of sustained economic growth and my guess is the great divide that appears to exist right now might begin to narrow. the differences might not look as deep as they are today. all of this is going to require leadership. this does not happen by osmosis. you don't change the path you're on without public leadership changing directions. too many people in public life try to follow what the polls say and try to mirror back what people are thinking at any given time. that is not leadership and that certainly won't change the direction that the country is taking and his son. leadership hard to define but

americans pretty much get it when they see it. when someone thinks first of the greater good which -- to a great leader everything else else comes second like i said politics the polls personal pride financial success and even friends sometimes. leaders are sometimes forced in crisis and sometimes they do their best work when no one is noticing but we always see the results. it takes strong leadership to produce results. we have seen that time and time again in recent history and it is certainly a lesson to remember as we look to the dog dog -- -- challenge we face. effective leadership comes in many forms and from both political parties. president kennedy led us through vision and inspiration when he challenged america to land a man on the moon. lyndon johnson used forceful hands-on leadership that produced historic civil rights legislation and a 25%

across-the-board income tax cut in just six weeks after the assassination of president kennedy. he cajoled, he hugged, he'd beg, he threatened, he'd praised and he did what a hands-on leader does in his hands were huge. the stories about johnson grabbing people by the shoulders to make them realize how important was to get things done was a sign of leadership that we need today. or how about my dad and managing the fall of darren kirton? as the soviet empire was collapsing there was a significant danger that there would be violence. the united states justifiably had done a victory dance over the soviets particularly for example when the berlin wall fell. i will never forget watching my dad on tv and the pundits were all saying we should go over there and celebrate with the german people. had my dad done with the people of the here and now want us to

do rather than be a figure he could have created greater vulnerabilities for garbage or a -- gorbachev to create an orderly transfer without bloodshed. the dictatorship of epic proportions in the 20th century fell without a drop of blood. it was an amazing feat thanks to the fantastic leadership of ronald reagan and then the humility of george h.w. bush to do the right thing rather than do to the thing that mike made him look popular. these are the kinds of leadership skills that are necessary today for our country. to be effective a strong leader must adhere to basic principles and be humbled and accommodating in pursuit of them. there is no greater example of that than the man for whom this library is named. almost six years ago -- [applause] almost six years ago senator ted kennedy stood here and praise the former president with whom he had engaged in some way political for battles.

he called ronald reagan a good friend and a gracious though. he wanted to defeat his opponent but he did not want to destroy them. president reagan took office with two evil empires in his sights. one was the soviet union and the other with the federal government intruding ever more into the lives of its citizens. he brought down the former and helped rein in the latter by doing what might be considered unthinkable today. he embraced his adversaries. two people can disagree and in fact they can disagree vehemently but if they see in each other and honest broker motivated by good intentions and sincere beliefs they can find accommodation. that was the secret to president reagan's success. he was considered the most bellicose of cold warriors before it's the most productive working relationship ever between an american president and the soviet premier. together he and gorbachev signed the first treaty eliminating the entire class of nuclear weapons. president reagan envisioned the

day that all nuclear weapons would be eliminated. he was portrayed by the press and adversaries as a loose hop that at his core he was the most optimistic during his time. for him the american dream is not just rhetoric said gorbachev it was something he felt in his heart. president reagan and house speaker tip o'neal were polar opposites and how they view the role of the federal government. they clashed often and yet even snipe at each other from time to time in the press but to quote his son thomas o'neal would -- than the other political philosophy with stalemate. in a country that was polarized by ideology and politics that it could not move forward. that is pretty refreshing if you think about it in the context today. they talked and had lunch and shared irish stories. they might have had a puff or two in the evening and not during the day for sure.

together through this bond of personal relationships even though they had disparate views about the size and scope of government they save social security for a generation past the greatest overall of our tax code in that generation. count the president reagan at countless sessions with democrats and republicans in the scene today one of meeting occurs at always, the precursors the press conference where someone is going to show up to me privately before the meeting even begins which is why i'm excited that president obama seems to have changed course in the last three days. i am sincere about this. it seems now he has invited republicans for the first time to dinner, 12 senators and the president discussing without press conferences and without a bunch of comment afterwards to see what each side has in terms

of what their aspirations are. he had lunch with paul ryan yesterday. this is a change that i think we should encourage whether it's motivated for all sorts of reasons we don't understand or not, ronald reagan would have done that and george bush would have done that and for our country to be successful we have to put aside some of this vitriol that exists and began to recognize that just because the other side doesn't have our view it does not mean they are not motivated for love of country. ..

and it requires the kind of that ronald reagan showed each and every day and that is why am honored to be here. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, guys. thank you very much. [applause] >> five minutes. you want to take a couple of questions? >> thank you so much, governor. we have got six minutes of time to take just a couple of questions. if you have a question, raise your hand. just wait until we put a microphone in a. tell us who you are.

start right over here. >> peggy. governor bush, thank you so much for your wonderful talk. i was curious, with your great results and education and florida, did you have to deal with a difficult teachers union? >> we -- it is not the cta, congressman. it is the fda. i would say that teachers union is one of the more powerful political forces in florida. i hope it is not as powerful as york teachers' union here. but we -- i wish i could tell you that we found accommodation, but the reality is, if you are advocating reforms that change the systems, people that are organized around the economic interests of the adults, that's their job. their job is to collectively bargain for the adults.

in the case of florida, the teachers' union represents teachers, of course. they also represent a public-school employees. they do well. but to expect them to embrace school choice or higher accountability or the kinds of things that we did, i did not expected and it did not get it. so it was a political fight. it requires staying the course. it required faithful execution on the laws that the legislature passed. we were all in for a nine years to kind of get the results the we had. teachers generally, i think, move toward seeing the benefits of this new system. the union itself didn't, and they still to this day are opposed the most substantive reforms, not just in florida, but around the country. i wish it was different, but it's part of the process of the fight. sometimes you have to fight. sometimes you find a way to find common ground, when you don't you have to sort it up politically. in my case that is what we did. i ran for reelection on these

reforms, got elected, which gave me a path to continue to do what i was doing. apart from being a joy to serve, it also allowed us to have enough time to show the kind of games that we got to be no other states are emulating that around the country. >> my name is alan parker. >> hello. >> i ask you when you were signing if you were going to save us. [laughter] and. >> that's a question. [laughter] i guess. i am optimistic that there is a growing consensus people's views of the political system are so -- people are angry and frustrated. i think it is beginning to change the system, and i think the republican party has seen the need for more positive,

pro-active message, not just to be against things, but to go back to the days of being the place where the interesting ideas were developed and advocated. reform was at the heart of what we believed. and if we do that part, then the country will be saved by the american people. not by, you know, an elected official or one that might ponder later ron. we cannot wait. we cannot wait until 2016 to begin to change the direction the country. it has to start now. that is the message. [applause] >> we have time for just one more question. right appear. >> hi. >> how are you doing? >> good. i am a recent immigrant here. >> where you from?

around of applause. >> i was wondering, they came here with the child. what if they grow about and then learned throughout high school, finished education. do they stay here do believe? >> so, the law right now is in limbo. the president has -- i'm not sure he has this executive power, but it is in the process of being challenged. this is the problem. our courts take so long. he did unilaterally or by delegated authority, he extended the time for the so-called dream act of students who you are describing to span the country for two years. it does not offer a permanent solution to this. in the book that i have written called immigration wars, we propose it passed the

legalization for adults, a path the citizenship for their children under the theory that the sense that this is -- not the right term, but the illegal immigrants break the law. their children should not be penalized for that. and so in your scenario and not sure you're talking about anybody you know. we will just leave it that. you would be under the suggestions that there being discussed right now in washington to reform aggression and will we believe that you would be given a path -- now you, excuse me. the person you describe would be given a pat the citizenship. you would have to -- one would have to get a ged or graduate from high school or in list in the military. does that answer your question? >> yes. >> good luck. [laughter] [applause]

>> governor, on behalf of everyone here we wanted thank you for your presentation. >> thank you all. [applause] >> every weekend, book tv offers 48 hours of programming focused on nonfiction authors and books. watch it here on c-span2. >> author of shotgun justice, one prosecutors crusade against crime and corruption in alexandria and arlington is next on book tv. he sat down with us in alexandria, virginia, during our recent visit. >> you are standing in the conference room of the arlington county sheriff. this gun behind me is the shotgun famous shotgun that was used by a prosecutor in the early 20th-century.

a guy by the name of crandall mackey elected in 1903 as the commonwealth attorney for alexandria county. he conducted a series of races where he shot down brothels and saloons and all kinds of dangerous places. he used this shotgun when he conducted the trades. he was from south carolina. his father was a very prominent judge and author in south carolina. the move appeared to be a lawyer then he got involved in the politics appeared in northern virginia. and what is significant about his times is that he was part of a progressive wing of the democratic party at that time which was kind of between a more conservative faction and a more progressive faction. this was a time when there really was in the republican party to speak of in virginia. the only real politics had to do with which faction of the democratic party was sort of in charge. and so the conservative wing of

the party was run by a political machine that was operated by a state senator by the name of thomas stables martin, the martin machine. so first became interested in politics l.a. 1800's and 1900's. he got involved in this group of progressives that were trying to essentially take over the state government. and one of his first major campaigns was the gubernatorial election of 1902. he went down to the convention to support the press of canada at that time his name was andrew jackson. montague was successful. and so that sort of lost his political career. when you first collected in 1903 he wanted to go after the gambling houses and the saloons and the sunday bars. wants to shut down. he had lots of resistance from the sheriff who wanted nothing to do with any of this because it was aligned with the political machine. so as a prosecutor yet to put together his own posse of supporters and conduct his own raids without much help from the

sheriff. he sent out letters to all this political supporters say what he was about to do, the rate he was about to conduct in trying to get people interested the find out if they wanted to be a part of the party. he got a good response. and so the elected prosecutor took this shotgun as sort of his totem to all of these places. so the shotgun is really interesting piece in history because it is associated. it has been passed down over the years through various hands. it is actually the property of the arlington historical society but then at some point it was displayed here in the arlington county sheriff's office. now, the back story on that is the arlington historical society has their own museum. you can go there and learn about the history of arlington. they were concerned because it is an actual weapon. they thought it might be a liability to have a weapon in the museum. so they gave it -- they loaned it to the sheriff here in

arlington county. it has been in the position of the arlington county sheriff ever since. now, the prosecutor, the modern-day prosecutor who i interviewed for the book was a little upset about this because the shot and his associate with the prosecutor. now and the prosecutor's office. more to the point, one of his chief enemies, during his time in office, the sheriff who was aligned with the corrupt political machine. and so the modern-day prosecutor who was retiring at the time, he felt like a shotgun should be in the position of the prosecutor, not the sheriff. i interviewed the sheriff and master about that. she said the shotgun is hours and were keeping it. today his name has been largely forgotten. there are couple of places where you can learn about and. one of them is here in the conference room. we look at the shot kennedy used. also, we're not far from the park right now. the area that he is in is where

all of the saloons and brothels and sunday bars used to be. he was definitely wanting to be remembered as someone to play a critical role in creating the modern move in virginia. get on the metric system today and get out, there's a huge escalator. you go up into metropolitan area. big buildings, lots of people. it is not like the ramshackle sort of muddy streets were you can get shot in an alley and people were afraid to go at night. and so today you can walk around the streets. it's a nice prosperous place. your not going to fear for your life. i think he would find that his greatest legacy. >> for more information on book tv recent visit to alexandria, virginia and the many other cities visited by our local content vehicles to my go to c-span.org / local content.

>> we have allowed a human rights nightmare to occur on our watch. in the years since dr. king's death, of vast new system of racial and social control has emerged from the ashes of slavery and jim crow. a system of mass incarceration that no doubt has dr. king turning in his grave today. the mass incarceration of poor people of color in the united states is tantamount to a new cast like system that shovelers are young sick people to brand new high-tech presence. it is a system brings poor people overwhelmingly poor people of color into a permanent second-class status nearly as effectively as earlier systems of racial and social control once did. it is, in my view, the moral equivalent of jim crow